Microbiological and genetic investigation of Kokozek plague outbreak, 1947, Kazakhstan
Project Status: 3 Approved without Funding
Duration in months: 18 months
Objective
Today, retrospective investigation of outbreaks of infection diseases by study bones of died people is interesting direction in the field of genetic archeology. One of its branches is retrospective investigation of plague outbreaks. In Kazakhstan, the human plague outbreaks have been recording since ancient time among Kazakh population but bacteriological confirmation of the disease started in XIXth century. In early and middle XIXth century people died of plague were buried in one mass grave. Its locations are currently known. Within this project the following tasks will be done – study of bone remains for revealing of DNA of plague microbe and definition of its phylogenic derivation; definition of alive conditions of plague microbe during 68 years after burial by study bone remains and soil’ protozoo (amoebae) which according to literature data is ecological niche of Y.pestis during inter-epizootic time. Also, the full picture of Kokozek plague outbreak will be recovered by the computer programs. The project “Microbiological and genetic investigation of Kokozek plague outbreak, 1947, Kazakhstan” will be carried out at KSCQZD. The project involves a team of experts from the M. Aikimbayev’s Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases (KSCQZD), Taldykorgan Anti-plague station, and the Institute of Genetics as well as experts from two long term collaborating Universities in Europe (Antwerp and Liverpool). All national participants live in the Almaty Region. All analysis will be carried out at the BSL3 laboratory of KSCQZD. This research is a pilot project and so, if we reach expected results, other projects will be submitted in order to for investigate other burial places in Kazakhstan.
